About “Poppies in July”

“Poppies in July

This is a short poem, the title of which suggests an image of natural life at the height of summer, evoking a pastoral landscape and happiness,. The title is ironic, however, because the poem is not a hymn to nature but a hallucinatory projection of the speaker’s mind and depressed negative emotions.

Structure
It is written in free verse. Its fifteen lines are divided into eight stanzas. The first seven stanzas are couplets, and the eighth consists of a single line. The lines are of unequal length and concise, with no words wasted; a typical Plath construction.

Language and Imagery
The speaker is the first person narrator, whom we can assume is the poet. There is no rhyme scheme, though assonance and consonance are used to give coherence. The meaning is expressed in imagery and overlapping metaphors.

Themes
The poet is aware that her marriage has failed. In her grief she looks to the poppies and finds in them symbolic meaning in relation to forgetfulness – they are the source of opium — and the red of hell-fire. There is a suggestion of self harm — maybe suicide — and escapism, as evidenced by her reference to opiates which can help her to escape her depression. The mood is of anger and deep grief.